The Art of the Chinese Sword

By Philip Tom

The medieval Chinese dynasties saw great advances in metallurgy. Some, like the ability to produce cast iron, were far ahead of such technology in the Europe. Others, like the mastery of efficient, large-scale steel production, enabled the Tang and Song dynasties to become major military powers in east Asia.

Most collectors of Asian arms are aware that the techniques of forging and tempering developed in China are the basis from which developed the reknowned Japanese swords. These skills arrived in Japan as early as the Sui and Tang dynasty China (AD 589 onward).

The connoisseurship of Japanese sword has thrived over the centuries and has gained an international following in our time. Today Japanese blades are rightly treasured as works of art on their own. Unfortunately, the appreciation of swords produced by the 'parent' smiths of China languished even in its native land. This is despite the fact that very fine blades were made in China, and that hand-to-hand combat with edged weapons often proved crucial in winning battles up through the end of the imperial period.

Sadly, even enthusiastic Chinese practitioners of martial arts tend to be ignorant of the history, manufacture, and aesthetic traditions of the weapons they train with daily. Non-Chinese are in no better state. There is difficulty in reconciling the beautiful specimens on display in venues such as the Forbidden City, Muse de l'Arme in Paris, or the Moscow Kremlin with the shoddy "Boxer Rebellion trophies" or touristic bric-a-brac often seen in antique shops or at gun shows.

A major reason for this situation lies in the scarcity of literature on the subject readily accessible to today's students. This paucity of reference material has not always been the case in China. A survey of technical and artistic treatises reveals a considerable number of works dealing with steel bladed swords, published as early as the 4th cent. AD. (There is an equally impressive body of material dealing with the earlier bronze weapons). However, the publication of such works dwindled sharply after the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644.

It is not known for certain why there is a relative scarcity of reference material written on swords during the Qing, the last imperial dynasty, which fell in 1911. A common explanation is that the ruling Manchus, who formed a small percentage of the empire's population, suppressed all writing on military subjects out of fear of insurgency by the Han Chinese majority.

At the beginning of the Qing dynasty, certain works such as Ming-era military encyclopedias were censored and restricted. However, a survey of Qing technical literature does show that a fair number of new titles were written and published throughout the dynasty. After all, the Qing still had need for the information for the benefit of its armed forces (which were predominately composed of Han Chinese troops). Research also has shown that Qing rulers could be quite pragmatic about the bearing of arms by the general populace: for instance, the Kangxi emperor was known to have vetoed a request by an official to disarm the people of Shandong Province.

What is interesting, however, about the military books published during the Qing is that they invarably deal with firearms, artillery, and explosive weapons. (These texts date primarily from the mid-nineteenth century when the empire was racked by rebellion). Even the classic late Ming encyclopedia, Wubeizhi, gives bladed weapons relatively scant attention. Why would this be so, despite the fact that edged weapons were a mainstay in the empire's arsenals? It could be that sword technology was by then considered "old hat", so well known by those whose job it was to master it that it hardly warranted repetition in books devoted to new technology.

It is also interesting to note that although Ming aesthetes had quite a bit to say about swords as an art form. There is however, little evidence to show that this appreciation remained strong during the Qing. A possible explanation could be that the tastes of China's cultural elite tended to narrow as the centuries passed, becoming ever more preoccupied with arcane details of a few, beloved major art forms such as painting, porcelain, and jade. A parallel can be drawn with the decline of the furniture tradition during the later Qing. Finally, we must also take note of the influence of Confucian values, which tended to denigrate things military in favor of literary interests. During the transition to Manchu rule it may also have been a pragmatic choice for scholars not to show too great an interest in arms.

What makes the study of the Chinese sword tradition a real challenge is that those who are studying it in our time must be explorers and pioneers, not passive consumers. There is much to be done in uncovering and translating the old texts that have survived. Even more exciting is the fresh look that we can get at the achievements of the past, by studying blades that have been carefully polished and restored.

Our research to date shows that the swordsmiths of China, over the last 20 centuries, have crafted blades combining the following attributes:

1. A hard and durable edge.
2. A resilient body which absorbs shock without breaking.

In a sword, these goals can be mutually exclusive. Hard steel tends to be brittle; a resilient, springy steel is softer and will not hold an edge as well. Chinese smiths got around this problem by combining hard and soft steels in varying ways. There are three basic methods. One is called baogang, or "wrapped" steel. The hard, high-carbon steel that forms the cutting edge looks, in cross-section, like a "V" which encloses a softer core of mild steel. The core metal is often folded upon itself for more strength, or layered with wrought iron for the same effect. A baogang blade must be made with a fairly thick jacket of hard steel, or else it loses its strength with repeated sharpening and grinding.

A more common form of blade forging is qiangang, or "inserted"steel. The high-carbon edge forms a core with is sandwiched between "cheeks" of mild steel. The cheeks are often made of alternating layers of iron and steel, which produce a pattern on the surface when the blade is polished. A skilled smith can manipulate the layers to produce patterns of great beauty, in addition to providing structural strength to the sword.

The last major type of forging is known in the West as "twistcore". This type is formed of parallel bars of twisted layers of hard and soft steel, all welded into a single unit under heat and hammer. When ground and polished, the surface resembles rows of feathery, star-shaped, or swirling elements.

The other area in which Chinese smiths showed considerable ingenuity was hardening the blade by heating and quenching in liquid. This technique is almost universal, wherever blades are manufactured. China was one of the few places in which techniques were devised to differentially heat-treat the edge, as opposed to the entire blade. This practice increased the strength and cutting ability of the blade. It was developed to the highest level by the Japanese, who originally utilized the skills of immigrant smiths from China and Korea.

	Chinese suishu peidao ( Imperial Attendants Saber ) of qiangang (inserted steel) with the vein (inserted edge) distinguisted from the gu (body) of the blade by way of a serrrated delineation.
	A chinese broad peidao with joui row twist core configuration (huaweu-gaug) with marked differentual hardening at the edge.
	A Chinese jian with dual rows of huawen (flowery figured) Damascus steel with lamdelae of twists running obliquely towards the point on either side of the median ridge.

The beauty of the Chinese swordsmith's craft is an art form just beginning to be rediscovered in China and elsewhere. We live in a time when new discoveries are made day to day. As we begin to see the beautiful patterns that raise from the marriage of form and function to create a sword blade of superior quality steel, we are only begining our study of the Chinese armor's craft. There many other areas of study waiting to be explored, from decorative motif and their symbolism to the blade aesthetics that are subtly married to function.

© Seven Stars Trading Co. 1998
Posted with permission of Philip Tom, and Scott Rodell on whose wedbsite the article was originally presented.

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About the author:

Philip Tom has more than 25 years' experience in research and restoration of arms and armor, with an intimate knowledge of their historical development, manufacturing technique and aesthetic traditions. Mr. Tom is the author of "Some Notable Sabers of the Quing Dynasty in the Metropolitan Museum of Art", to be published in 2001 in Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 36. He has addressed the Society of Ethnographic & Historical Edged Weapons Collectors of Israel, lecturing on Ming and Quing armes-blanches, in Tel Aviv in 2000. He has also been an Advisor on Chinese armament to the National Maritime Museum in Haifa, Israel, for a special exhibition on piracy. Mr. Tom was an historical consultant for a documentary telecast "Oriental Firearms" (part of the Tales of the Gun series) distributed by the History Channel in 2000, and was the curator and conservator for "Sword & Brush: Art from China's Martial Tradition", an exhibit at the Great River Taoist Center in Washington DC in the fall of 1999. Mr. Tom has a Master of Arts degree in History from the University of Hawaii, Manoa Campus.